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the eighth day

March 29, 2006

God's Politics

British Finance Minister and Prime-Minister-in-Waiting has warmly endorsed Jim Wallis' bookGod's Politics, in a bold statement which challenges the presuppositions on which much of the religious right's agenda in national politics. Jim Wallis is launching the book in Melbourne on Sunday at Melbourne Town Hall - an event I will be attending.

I don't have a problem with religious issues entering our national political agenda - goodness knows that they are writ large all over the international stage at the moment... but let's ensure that it is not used to merely prop up a narrow ideology which marginalises the poor, demonises the stranger, and diminishes our commitment to compassion, justice and truth.

Some of the great atrocities of history have been committed by well-meaning religious people, who have lost grounding in the full message of the Bible. I'm looking forward to hearing Wallis speak, and this broader conversation entering the Australian public dialogue.